People have shown a remarkable reluctance to pay for access to information on the Web. They don't even want to register for free to look at things. Thus, advertiser-supported content makes a lot of sense.What we don't know well, yet, is what works and how to do it, and that's going to take some time to figure out. We're still grappling with how to measure how many people are coming to a site, let alone how to tackle the issue of whether the ad is effective.
Yet the Web gives us the potential to acquire a lot of information about how consumers use the environment. I don't see this as sinister. Instead, I think it means that -- if done right -- we have a chance to know our customers and meet their needs better than ever before.
I think people need to keep in mind that this is a many-to-many medium. The user expects a degree of control unheard of in traditional, one-to-many media. Website producers should take advantage of interactivity, and above all strive for a relationship with their visitors, one that must be continuously updated. This has enormous implications for everything from Web page design to the best commercial opportunities on the Web.
The Internet is an exciting new frontier, but taking advantage of the great potential of the Internet as an agent for social change is going to be very difficult. We only have to look at the enormous struggle to keep the Net free from censorship to see what we have in store as the medium develops and grows.
We believe that at this stage of the development of the Internet as a commercial medium -- and it is commercial development that will put the Net into the reach of the general population -- individuals and firms must cooperate and share information in order to move the market ahead.
This is one reason we started Project 2000. Through its Web site, we can disseminate the results of our own research and links to related research. And we can do so globally, efficiently and continuously.
Back to Rheingold's Neighborhood
